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Sunday, May 4, 2014

Mombasa Hit By Bus And Beach Resort Blasts

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in twin bomb blasts in Mombasa, Kenya, officials say.

One blast happened at a busy bus station in Mwembe Tayari, near the city centre, when a grenade was thrown into a crowded minibus killing at least three people, and wounding more than 20.
At the bus terminus, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.
"I didn't see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb," Halima Sidi, 26, who works at a local supermarket, told Reuters at a hospital as nurses bandaged her wounded legs.
Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa said: "What happened is a grenade was thrown at passengers.

The bombings happened at a bus station and the Reef Hotel

"The attackers were riding on a motorbike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus."
Another explosion occurred at a well-known beach resort hotel, the Reef Hotel, in the Nyali area of the city, although no casualties have been reported.
An unattended bag had been found on the beach, which was abandoned at the gate of the hotel after it was found to contain what turned out to be an explosive device, which subsequently went off.

One of the bombingvictims is put on a stretcher. Pic: Daily Nation

Hotelier Mohammed Hersi told Sky News there had been no injuries and all the guests were safe.
A police official said: "We had two incidents. One at the bus station where three people have lost their lives. In the second incident that occurred near a hotel in Nyali there were no casualties."
While no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, Kenya has been targeted in the past by gun and grenade attacks in Mombasa and central Nairobi, which the government has blamed on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shabaab.

Blood stains are visible on the side of a bus at one of the blast sites

Last year, a terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi left at least 67 people dead.
Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the bombings bore the hallmarks of an attack by Islamic militants.
He said: "This could be seen as a counter-attack by radical al Qaeda-related groups against the body politic and the economy of Kenya by targeting an environment where tourists are likely to be."